Apathy of cop helps rape accused to evade arrest

A ‘Writ of Mandamus’ has been filed at the Bombay High Court on June 6 to transfer the rape case of a 34year-old hair stylist to another police officer. Since the investigating officer Nityanand Ubale of the Dindoshi police station has been allegedly hand in glove with the accused and had failed to appear before the court to oppose the anticipatory bail of the accused.

As per the writ of mandamus, there is no concrete investigation carried out and no progress since the registration of FIR on October 3, 2017. Secondly, though the accused Atul Kadam being a famous Bollywood make-up artist, the investigating officer deliberately avoided the arrest during period from October 3, 2017 to May 2018. Thirdly, the investigating officer has not been opposing the anticipatory bail plea filed by the accused before the High Court as the investigating officer deliberately remained absent during the twelve dates of hearing proceedings.

In October 2017, the police had registered a case of rape at the Dindoshi police station. As per the petition, from December 2015 to October 2017, the petitioner repeat- edly approached Ubale and other duty officers of the Dindoshi police to register an FIR against the accused but Ubale refused to do so. On April 17, 2017, the petitioner, through Mohan Krishnan, president of an NGO Anti-Corruption & Crime Preventive Council President, had corresponded with the respondents through many letters.

The petitioner is a divocee and staying with her 3 children. The victim, being a Bollywood hair stylist, got acquainted with Bollywood make-up artist Kadam.

One day, on the pretext of some work, Kadam asked the victim to meet him at his residence where he offered her a cold drink which was spiked and allegedly raped her. He also shot obscene pictures and videos of her. Thereafter, she refused to continue the relationship, to which Kadam got annoyed and threatened her that he would circulate the clips and videos on social media and among their friends, and raped the petitioner on various occasions.

On October 3, 2017, the Dindoshi police registered an FIR for rape against Kadam and the case was handed over to Ubale. On October 3, 2017 till present, Ubale has not made any attempt to arrest the accused and not even opposed the anticipatory bail application in the HC, stated the petition.

Since October 3, 2017, the accused is indulging in sharing and circulating the offensive clips of the petitioner.

Sushan Kunjuram, who is representing the victim, said, “The accused has purchased the investigating officer. The investigating officer Nityanand Ubale has been very reckless and has not been attending the anticipatory bail application proceedings. The anticipatory bail proceedings are not carried out for more than two to three months. However, in this case due to the absence of Ubale, the anticipatory bail proceedings have been conducted for more than eight months now. We are awaiting for a suo-moto from the court. We will also be applying for disciplinary action to taken against Ubale.”

According to Mohan Krishnan, President of AntiCorruption and Crime Preventive Council, “It has been conveyed to the victim over the phone that the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Gyaneshwar Javadkar, will be monitoring the case henceforth. However, nothing has been given in writing about the same.”